Category: Science

Recently analysed data from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has revealed water locked inside the clays that make up its scientific target, the asteroid Bennu. During the mission’s approach phase, between mid-August and early December, the spacecraft travelled 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km) on its journey from Earth to […]

For the second time in human history, an artificial Terran object has reached the space between the stars. NASA’s Voyager 2 probe now has exited the heliosphere – the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun. Comparing data from different instruments aboard the trailblazing spacecraft, mission scientists determined the probe crossed […]

In some respects, Martijn Van Calmthout’s book, ‘Sam Goudsmit And The Hunt For Hitler’s Atom Bomb’ is taking the focus what this book is really about. Sam Goudmit (1902-1978) was renowned for his work in quantum mechanics and, along with George Eugene Uhlenbeck in 1925, the discovery of the spin in sub-atomic particles. As a […]

The subject of Louis A. Del Monte’s book ‘Genius Weapons’ comes more from its sub-title, ‘Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Weaponry And The Future Of Warfare’. As he describes in his introduction, America is actually lagging behind Russia and China in making robotics and AI working together and where battles will be between machines rather than people. […]

Mars has just received its newest robotic resident. NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander successfully touched down on the Red Planet after an almost seven-month, 300-million-mile (458-million-kilometer) journey from Earth. InSight’s two-year mission will be to study the deep interior of Mars to learn how all celestial bodies with […]

NASA has chosen Jezero Crater as the landing site for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission after a five year search. The rover mission is scheduled to launch in July 2020 as NASA’s next step in exploration of the Red Planet. It will not only seek signs of ancient habitable conditions – and past microbial […]

Dr. Avi Loeb of Harvard University (as well as the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) does a little video about the background and science behind the oddness of the recent fly-through of the Oumuamua object, and why science suggests it might have been a solar sail probe of some sort on a fly-by.

The basis of Ryan North’s book, ‘How To Invent Everything’ is transporting yourself into the past by a time machine but alas breaks down and you’re stuck there. No matter which century, this book is not so much a survival guide but the means to make where you are a better place and removing the […]

After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from […]